Edward B. Lewis

About Edward B. Lewis

Who is it?: Geneticist
Birth Day: May 20, 1918
Birth Place: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States
Died On: July 21, 2004 (aged 86)\nPasadena, California
Birth Sign: Gemini
Alma mater: University of Minnesota (B.A., 1939) California Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1942, M.S., 1943)
Known for: Research into genetics of the common fruit fly
Awards: Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal (1983) ForMemRS (1989) Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (1992) Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1991) Nobel Prize in Medicine (1995)
Fields: Genetics Developmental Biology Embryology
Thesis: A genetic and cytological analysis of a tandem duplication and its included loci in Drosophila melanogaster (1942)
Doctoral advisor: Alfred Sturtevant
Doctoral students: Mark M. Davis

Edward B. Lewis Net Worth

Edward B. Lewis was born on May 20, 1918 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States, is Geneticist. Edward Butts Lewis was an eminent scientist, known for his work on genetics of the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanosgaster). Born in the early twentieth century, his childhood as well as youth was spent under financial paucity because his watchmaker-jeweler father lost his job at the start of the Great Depression. Yet it could not rob him of his energy, wit and inquisitiveness. He started working with Drosophila while in school. Later he earned his bachelor’s degree in biostatistics from the University of Minnesota and his PhD in Genetics from Caltech. During this period, he also invented ‘cis-trans’ test, which is still taught in the introductory undergraduate biological courses. However, he could begin his actual research works only after returning to Caltech after a brief war service. He mostly worked on genetics and it earned him number of awards including the Nobel Prize. Equally significant was his study on the effects of radiation on human health. He fought to establish that even low level of radiation is bad for health. Although short in stature, he was great in all kinds of human quality and was greatly respected for his modesty, personal integrity and intellect.
Edward B. Lewis is a member of Scientists

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Edward B. Lewis images

Awards and nominations:

Lewis received numerous awards and honours during his career including the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal in 1983, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize in 1992, the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1991 and the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1995. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1989. He was also awarded the Gairdner Foundation International award in 1987, the Wolf Foundation prize in medicine in 1989, the Rosenstiel award in 1990 and the National Medal of Science in 1990.

Biography/Timeline

1939

Lewis graduated from E. L. Meyers High School. He received a BA in Biostatistics from the University of Minnesota in 1939, where he worked on Drosophila melanogaster in the lab of C.P. Oliver. In 1942 Lewis received a Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), working under the guidance of Alfred Sturtevant.

1946

After serving as a Meteorologist in the U.S. Air Force in World War II, Lewis joined the Caltech faculty in 1946 as an instructor. In 1956 he was appointed Professor of Biology, and in 1966 the Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology.

1950

During the 1950s, Lewis studied the effects of radiation from X-rays, nuclear fallout and other sources as possible causes of cancer. He reviewed medical records from survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as radiologists and patients exposed to X-rays. Lewis concluded that "health risks from radiation had been underestimated". Lewis published articles in Science and other journals and made a presentation to a Congressional committee on atomic Energy in 1957.

1962

The issue of linearity versus threshold re-entered the debate on nuclear fallout in 1962, when Ernest Sternglass, a Pittsburgh Physicist, argued that the linearity thesis was confirmed by the research of Alice Stewart. (See also John Gofman )

1983

Lewis received numerous awards and honours during his career including the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal in 1983, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize in 1992, the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1991 and the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1995. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1989. He was also awarded the Gairdner Foundation International award in 1987, the Wolf Foundation prize in Medicine in 1989, the Rosenstiel award in 1990 and the National Medal of Science in 1990.

2001

On November 20, 2001 Lewis was interviewed by Elliot Meyerowitz in the Kerckhoff Library at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. This interview was released on DVD in 2004 as "Conversations in Genetics: Volume 1, No. 3 - Edward B. Lewis; An Oral History of Our Intellectual Heritage in Genetics" 67 min; Producer Rochelle Easton Esposito; The Genetics Society of America.

2013

His Nobel Prize–winning studies with Drosophila, (including the discovery of the Drosophila Bithorax complex of homeotic genes, and elucidation of its function), founded the field of evolutionary developmental biology and laid the groundwork for our current understanding of the universal, evolutionarily conserved strategies controlling animal development. He is credited with development of the complementation test. His key publications in the fields of genetics, developmental biology, radiation and cancer are presented in the book Genes, Development and Cancer, which was released in 2004.